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Realities of living on the road – brushing your teeth outside with no water! Southern Utah

With 4+ months of living out of a tiny teardrop camper with no bathroom, it’s a fair question – what is your beauty routine on the road? This is a funny one for me to answer because I’ve never been great at making myself up in the first place. Despite watching my mom do herself up beautifully each morning before work my entire childhood, I didn’t use a blow dryer or tweezers until well into my high school years and didn’t discover makeup until my besties in college used to make me up for fun. I just never really had much of an interest in it. As I’ve gotten older I’ve started to wear some mascara, blush and eyeliner and make sure my hair looks decent before popping out the door for work or socializing with friends. I’ve never been a makeup-to-the-gym kind of girl, but aside from working out, I do usually make myself up a little bit before I leave the house. So – beauty routine on an extended road trip?!

Continued [See this post for Part I of the Olympic Peninsula!] Not at all having satisfied our desire to explore the western side of Olympic National Park, but needing to get moving because we are on a somewhat strict timeline, we headed up and around the Peninsula and parked Gelly in the Hearty of the Hills Campground, just outside of Port Angeles and near the main entrance to Olympic NP. This was a perfect place to camp for us to see our friends in Port Angeles, do some exploring in Hurricane Ridge, and also make our way out to Cape Flattery.

A few weeks ago we spent some time on the Olympic Peninsula, in Washington, and absolutely fell in love with the area. We adore it in every way, even if it did pour down rain on us.

The peninsula is mostly covered by Olympic National Park, with the very outside of the peninsula all around the Park dotted with farms and cute little towns, and the Coast Guard station, of course! Olympic NP might just be my favorite national park (in the U.S.) so far, for lots of reasons, including that it covers such a variety of environments. You’ve got the old growth rainforest, the beautiful Pacific coastline, the majestic mountain ranges in the center, and water – so much water – waterfalls, lakes, coastline, rivers, and lots of opportunities for wildlife viewing. It’s a playground for just about anyone who cares anything for the outdoors and I am certain that there is something here for everyone.

How on Earth is it July already?! We’ve been on the road for 4 months now, and still loving every minute … okay maybe not loving it when the rain’s been pouring on us for a bit, but we will take some rain if it means lovely waterfalls, rainbows and bright sunny days come afterwards! We are now embarking on the part of the trip that I have eagerly anticipated the most – Alaska! But for now, here is the tally of facts and figures from the last month – June 10th through July 10th:

I love kids with a passion I usually reserve for hot cheese, miniature chairs, and Prince concerts, but I feel no stress to reproduce simply because of a fear of withering eggs. –Olivia Wilde

We get the kids question A LOT and I love this quote from Olivia – she captures the sentiment pretty well if you ask me. With lots and lots and lots of talk about biological clocks and a woman’s age and fertility [which oftentimes comes up with near or perfect strangers, never ceasing to boggle the mind], can we just all agree that we are collectively tired of talking about it?! The way the conversation almost always goes for me is this: Are you married? [yes.] Do you have kids? [no.] How long have you been married? [3.5 years] How old are you? [Oh, early thirties.] When are you going to have kids? [Not sure – vague next few years reference.] Don’t worry, you have time. [Ok, thanks perfect stranger for that reassurance] or Oh, if you want to have more than one, you should think about getting started – you never know how long it will take [stranger then launches into stories about all the people they know who have had fertility issues].

Well we have officially been on the road for 100 days! Well a couple more than that by now. Our 100th day fell on the summer solstice, the longest day of the year, and we spent the day sea kayaking around San Juan Island in very windy seas but beautiful sunny weather, searching the horizon for signs of Orcas or other whales or dolphins. We didn’t see any whales unfortunately, but spotted a number of Bald Eagles, including some mating activity, and had a lovely time exploring the western coast of San Juan Island, and getting a workout in to boot.

So, as we celebrate this milestone of 100 days into this grand adventure, here are some random thoughts from me.

TinyHouses are all the rage these days, and so we jumped on the bandwagon! And LOVED IT! You guys sure loved the Instagram photo of the TinyHouse we rented in Portland, Oregon, too. It is my most loved, most appreciated photo so far. And by popular demand, in fact, very demanding demand, here’s a post about our experience staying in the TinyHouse in Portland.

Life was meant for good friends and great adventures. It is especially sweet when good friends join you for those great adventures. For Memorial Day this year, a couple of our favorites joined us on the road for the long weekend. We met them at Shasta National Forest, in the very northern part of California, and began our weekend of revelry. We hiked from Castle Lake to Heart Lake, catching up on life and enjoying the beautiful views of Mt. Shasta.